Petals- Kaija Saariaho

• Dynamics

  • Constantly changing, mostly made up of crescendos and diminuendos, reverb follows this with different percentage settings
• Rhythm

  1. Large range of rhythmic gestures in metrically active sections

  2. Rapid dectuplets

  3. Syncopations within septuplets/quintuplets with steady flow often interrupted with rits and pauses

  4. Gradually the rhythm becomes less defined as the piece continues
• Harmony

  • Embedded within rich timbral mixes
  • Constant overtones, harmonics
  • Spectral analysis of cello used to create pitch material
  • Harmony and timbre heard successively as melodic entities when usually they are simultaneous
  • 'Timbre is vertical.. Harmony is horizontal' according to her
• Instrumentation

  • Solo cello specifically for cellist Anssi Karttunen
  • Detailed instructions for different types of vibrato, three different types of glissando, details on how close the bow should be to the bridge, how hard you should press your bow and your fingers, literally anything that could have an instruction has an instruction
  • Electronics have amplification (brings out timbral detail in quieter sounds), reverb (basically a sustain pedal) and harmoniser (detunes by added input pitch a quarter tone higher and lower to the note)
• Tempo

  • Sections with notated tempo are all slow, 54-66 bpm
  • Lento sections are all pulseless, only notation is each stave should be at least 20 seconds
  • Tension in pulse sections
• Texture

  • Monophonic very briefly to begin in the first three staves
  • Sections 3, 5 and 7 have two part textures
  • Sections 3 and 5 have pedal/drone textures
• Tonality

  • Atonal
  • Dyads (two note chords) act as points of resolution
• Timbre (Sonority)

  • Harmoniser, reverb and amplifier
  • Focus on pressure either on the bow or the strings themselves
  • Extensive use of sul ponticello, sul tasto, harmonics, glissandi and micro intervals
• Melody

  • Usage of quarter tones
  • Chromatic scale-like passages
  • Glissandi, microtonal movement
  • Retrograde (melodic line reverse of previously stated line) developed sequentially using augmented fourth leaps
  • Repetitions and elaborations of a fixed group of pitches like a mode or scale
  • Semitonal trills
  • Pizzicato
• Wider Listening


  • Gerald Grisey: Partiels (1975)
• All spectrographic and broken down into frequencies